No religion will live up to its full potential until it succeeds in the most basic practice of all—treating all people with respect and dignity. – Steve Wiggins, “Without a Hitch” on his blog Sects and Violence in the Ancient World [Read more...]

Earlier today I created an image to illustrate one popular inversion of the Bible, and now I am sharing another, which I found rather than created. If the Samaritan who behaved as depicted in the story in Luke came to be known as the good Samaritan, then must we not say that one who speaks [Read More...]

Tonight’s episode of Doctor Who, “A Town Called Mercy,” is a treasure trove of material for discussion for those interested in the intersection of Doctor Who and religion. What follows includes SPOILERS and so if you have yet to see the episode and don’t want to know what happens, bookmark this post and read it [Read More...]

Fred Clark has a post on his blog focused on the requirement to accept Gentiles communicated in Acts 10-11, as God is described as expanding his people to include those previously excluded. In that connection he writes: I believe that denying LGBT people full legal equality is objectively immoral. I believe that excluding LGBT people [Read More...]

I found the image at Political Graffiti. It seems to me that there is a more serious parallel that one can draw between Christian discipleship and education in general. Traditionally, Christianity has been characterized by the vast majority of its devotees thinking in this term, so that even its teachers have ended up “teaching to the [Read More...]

In a conversation with a young-earth creationist here on this blog, I was struck by the irony of the fact that he offered, as one reason for rejecting evolution, the teaching of Scripture that we should not follow the ways or teachings of sinful human beings. How right he is, and how wrong at the [Read More...]

Ever since the hubbub about Chick-fil-A started, I’ve been looking for a way to work in a Spaceballs reference. And so I am glad to have found a way to do so, even if the connection may only become apparent later in the post. Today is both Chick-fil-A protest day and Chick-fil-A appreciation day. I [Read More...]

I’ve heard the argument made that the government taxing the wealthy and redistributing that wealth to those less fortunate than them is not taxation, but robbery. I wonder how many of those who say such things are Christians or Jews , and would also think Deuteronomy 26:12 was robbery. Israelites had to set aside 10% of [Read More...]

Someone turned the point I made in my last blog post into an image. I will have to check the figures, but it looks about right. Thoughts? HT Reddit My first instinct is to doubt that there is a connection, that the correlation indicates causation. But it does not seem impossible to me that the [Read More...]

As a Christian, I seek to live by the Golden Rule. SMBC has a cartoon which calls into question whether even that principle represents a perfect ethical law (HT Hemant Mehta): I doubt (although feel free not to correct me) that anyone actually has the fetish mentioned in the cartoon. But I can well imagine [Read More...]

It seems that I somehow managed to neglect blogging about the episode “The Dominators” after listening to the episode as an audiobook some months ago. Here are my thoughts on it! The episode “The Dominators” sees the Doctor landing on a world that has embraced pacifism completely. The planet has no prisons, and an island [Read More...]